GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642)

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£ 4 410
Auction dateClassic
13.12.2023 11:00UTC +01:00
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CHRISTIE'S
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ID 1105665
Lot 53 | GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642)
GALILEI, Galileo (1564-1642)

Opere, divise in quattro tomi, in questa nuova edizione accresciute de molte cose inedite. Edited by Giuseppe Toaldo (1719-1797). Padua: Stamperia del Seminario, appresso Gio. Manfrè, 1744.

First complete collected edition of Galileo's works, the third overall, and the first to include the Dialogo, which occupies vol. IV. It also includes other Galilean material for the first time, and Riccardi provides a list of the other ‘cose inedite’. Despite having this new freedom to print, the editor, Abbot Giuseppe Toaldo, professor of mathematics and astronomy at Padua, still had to obey the instructions of an Inquisitor of the Congregation of the Holy Office. This copy contains very many annotations which refer mainly to two scientific Italian authors, Guido Grandi (1671-1742) and Giuseppe Venturoli (1768-1846). Grandi collaborated with Buonaventuri on the 1718 edition of Galileo’s work and was the author of the extremely rare Lezioni coniche published in Florence and Naples. He published other important works, including Geometrica demonstratio theorematum Hugenianorum (Florence, 1701) and Quadratura circuli, et hyperbolae per infinitas hyperbolas (Pisa, 1710). Venturoli was the author of an influential book on hydraulics, Elementi di meccanica e d'idraulica. Brunet II, 1461; Carli and Favaro 478; Cinti 176; Gamba p. 152; Houzeau and Lancaster 3386; Riccardi I, 522 (‘molto più completa ed ordinata delle due precedenti’).



4 volumes, quarto (240 x 175mm). Engraved frontispiece portrait by Zucchi, title to vol. I in red and black, all titles with phoenix device, folding engraved plate, woodcuts in text, woodcut ornaments. Volume II with table on an inserted leaf in quire Xxx (paper flaw affecting leaf Y2 in vol. IV with small associated loss to a couple of letters and woodcut diagram, a few very minor ink spots obscuring text in vol. I on Oo4v and Pp1r, as well as vol. III on Vv1r, otherwise a fine, clean and crisp copy, with only occasional faint and insignificant browning). Contemporary vellum, gilt red morocco spine labels, sprinkled edges (spine labels a bit chipped). Provenance: many manuscript annotations and geometric figures on separate loose sheets inserted in vol. I (14 sheets, octavo and quarto), and III (12 sheets, octavo and quarto) – some scattered pencil marginalia.

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